DARTFORD WARBLER 65 



Kent {Zoologist, 1844), truly remarks : " Though deriving 

 its name from a Kentish town, this bird is by no means 

 so common here as in some other parts " ; and strange 

 to say, from 1773 to this date no good account of the 

 Hfe-history of this bird appears to have been given of 

 it in Kent. 



In the British Museum there are two specimens, a 

 male and a young bird from Kent, presented by Colonel 

 Montagu. 



Rennie, in his ArcJiitectare of Birds, says " that he 

 observed it on Blackheath, suspended over the furze, and 

 singing on the wing like a Whitethroat or Titlark, as 

 early as the end of February." Mr. G. Dowker, in his 

 Birds of East Kent, 1889, on the authority of Mr. C. 

 Gordon, states that a Dartford Warbler was obtained at 

 Guston in March, 1887. In the Exeter Museum is a 

 Dartford Warbler labelled Kent, which was bequeathed 

 by the Eev. Bower Scott. 



The Dartford Warbler on the Banks of the Thames at 

 Woolwich. — " When out shooting on October 1, I saw, 

 hopping about in some blackthorn bushes on the banks 

 of the river, a bird which, from its small size and mouse- 

 like movements, appeared strange to me. It kept so near 

 the ground that it was with difficulty I could get a shot, 

 which only wounded it. I scrambled through the bushes 

 as quickly as possible, but only in time to see it run into 

 a rat-hole. After a fruitless attempt to rake it out with 

 my ramrod I left the spot, but on returning some time 

 afterwards to the same bushes I found it fluttering about 

 in them, and, finding I could not catch it, I fired a second 

 time, fortunately killing it. On examining the bird I 

 found it to be a fine male specimen of the Dartford 

 Warbler. In the stomach I found some small grass- 

 5 



